Maybe the end wasn’t nigh after all. But a whole lot of atheists in Seattle had a fun party and raised a few thousand dollars for a non-religious camp for kids.

Now, Camping is saying thereal rapture happens later this month. May 21 was a deadline of sorts — an “invisible judgment day.” In other words, if you weren’t saved then, you’re going to be in a lot of trouble come Oct. 21.

So far, no Seattle-area “rapture day” parties are planned for that date. Earlier this year, a a local atheist group planned a party to mark the end of Camping’s “countdown to backpedaling.”

Here’s the message Camping is putting out on the website for his Family Radio organization:

Thus we can be sure that the whole world, with the exception of those who are presently saved (the elect), are under the judgment of God, and will be annihilated together with the whole physical world on October 21, 2011, on the last day of the present five months period. On that day the true believers (the elect) will be raptured. We must remember that only God knows who His elect are that He saved prior to May 21.

More recently, he told followers in a recorded message:

I do believe that we’re getting very near the very end…. If [God] had not kept us from knowing everything that we didn’t know, we would not have been able to be used of Him to bring about the tremendous event that occurred on May 21 of this year, and which probably will be finished out on October 21, that’s coming very shortly. That looks like it will be at this point, it looks like it will be the final end of everything.

Wow. Far be it from me to judge people based on their looks, but this guy makes John McCain look like Justin Bieber. I’m actually surprised his theology isn’t ancient Egyptian.

The non-elect will be “annihilated together with the whole physical world”? Well, that’s a sight better than eternal perdition, and not something I would usually expect from a hyper-Calvinist like Camping. I admit I have to give him a couple of brownie points for that.

I definitely look forward to hearing what he has to say on the 22nd, though. He hasn’t really left himself a lot of options at this point.